Space Science Institute

Please join us in welcoming Charissa Campbell, an Affiliate Research Scientist. Welcome to the SSI team! Below is Charissa's bio on their field and specialty.

Dr. Charissa Campbell is a planetary atmospheric scientist, focusing on aerosols in the Martian atmosphere. She obtained her MSc and PhD at York University investigating Martian water-ice clouds while on the Curiosity rover operations team. Afterwards, she did postdoctoral work at NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre investigating dust events at the Martian south pole using Mars Climate Sounder Data. They also recently rejoined the Curiosity rover operations team to investigate dust lifting in imagery. She hopes to expand her knowledge of Martian aerosols with orbital and/or surface data, while also exploring ideas such as machine learning, low-cost mission concepts for Mars and aerosols on other planetary bodies.

Please join us in welcoming Dhanesh Krishnarao, an Affiliate Research Scientist. Welcome to the SSI team! Below is DK's bio.

Dhanesh Krishnarao (DK) holds a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2020) - specializing in understanding gas in galaxies and bridging our understanding of the Milky Way with that of a large sample of other galaxies. Now, DK focuses on studying how gas in galaxies is ionized, heated, and maintained in large quantities through observations of absorption and emission lines across many wavelengths.

DK is also a member of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's fifth iteration (SDSS-V), and leads the Faculty and Student Teams (FAST) initiative, which has sought to attract and retain talented and historically marginalized undergraduate students and faculty within the SDSS collaboration since 2015. FAST forges partnerships where faculty and students at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) are partnered with SDSS Ambassadors at well-resourced R1 universities and Research Institutes to engage directly with proprietary SDSS-V observations and benefit from long-lasting, sustainable collaborations.

In the classroom, DK prioritizes student self-reflection and growth as a means to assess understanding and work towards mastery as well using community engagement as a means to improve learning outcomes for students in higher-ed and at K-12 schools.

Check out this paper published by SSI's Alicia Vaughan! This paper investigates the youngest preserved unit of the Western Jezero fan, identifying two distinct compositions of boulders that point to unique sources beyond Jezero crater. It shows that these boulders were most likely deposited by a high-energy river system, and thus represent the last stages of aqueous activity involved in the formation of the fan. This work also highlights the ability of using Mastcam-Z multispectral data to confidently identify olivine- and pyroxene-bearing materials across the Martian landscape.

Check out the article here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2025JE009159